More first impressions

[batdog]

I bought this yesterday and have been playing it pretty much non-stop.  I got the limited edition copy which comes with some downloadable extras, including a very destructive hovercraft.

I've not had so much fun with a game for a long time.  Laugh out loud moments are frequent, usually caused by the slightly over the top physics engine.  Try shooting out the tyres of pursuing enemies for a barrel roll of laughs. Experimenting with the dual grapple is also fun.  If you haven't seen the trailers, you can, for example attach the grapple to an enemy, fix the other end to a gas canister, shoot the canister and off it flies, trailing the enemy behind it.

Firefights break out quite frequently between the Panauan army and the various rebel groups.  You can often just stand back and watch them unfold.  The funniest moment so far was standing by the side of the road watching the army wipe out a handful of rebels, mainly by blowing one of the rebel's vehicles apart.  In the aftermath, one of the army officers stood near me decided to return to his jeep on the other side of the road.  Unfortunately, he didn't look both ways and was run over by a passing tuk-tuk!

I would highly recommend the game.  It looks gorgeous and has countless things to see and do.  Most complaints tend to centre on the time it takes to get to missions but then, duh, this is an open world game, what do you expect.  Personally I like that element of just jumping in the car, motorbike, hovercraft, helicopter, jet plane, tuk-tuk, tank, etc and driving for miles to my next choice of location.

Definitely my favourite game of the year so far.  Any frustrations I normally encounter with other games are easily compensated for here by the endless fun to be had.